12 Min
LiveChat covers your website. Central covers every platform.
One inbox. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS, and more. Leads qualified and appointments booked automatically.
Never miss another call.
Website chat vs. every channel your customers use.
LiveChat is a well-established live chat platform with solid analytics, customizable widgets, and a 14-day free trial. For teams that need a reliable website chat tool and are happy to manage other channels separately, it works.
Central is one inbox for every platform: web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS, email, X, Discord, Telegram, and LinkedIn. Leads qualified automatically. Appointments booked inside the conversation. No per-seat pricing. No separate tool for each channel.
Per-seat pricing. Website only. No appointments booked.
LiveChat starts at $25/seat/month with no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Costs scale with every agent you add. The chatbot is a separate product. The Starter plan caps at 100 tracked visitors and 60 days of chat history. Reviewers consistently flag simplistic chatbot capabilities that require frequent manual handoffs. There is no appointment booking. Social platforms outside Facebook are not covered from a unified inbox.
What this means in practice:
Priced per agent per month ($25 to $89/agent); costs scale with team size
No free plan; 14-day trial only
Chatbot is a separate product, not included in live chat plans
Starter plan: 100 tracked visitors, 60-day chat history only
No appointment booking in chat
No unified inbox for WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, or other social platforms
Every platform. Appointments booked. Flat rate.
Central connects every platform your customers message on into one inbox and handles the full conversation automatically. No separate chatbot product. No per-agent compounding.
Every message that comes in becomes an outcome delivered.
What this means in practice:
Web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS, email, X, Discord, Telegram, and LinkedIn in one inbox
Conversational AI included, no separate product purchase required
Appointments confirmed inside the chat, calendar checked in real time
Flat monthly pricing. No per-agent cost increase as your team grows.
What each product actually does
Feature
Platforms covered
Instagram DMs
SMS
Unified inbox
AI/chatbot included
Appointment booking in chat
Pricing model
Free plan
Visitor tracking on Starter
Lead qualification
Knowledgebase training
Built for service SMBs
LiveChat
Website, Facebook, WhatsApp (limited)
—
—
Partial
— (separate ChatBot product)
—
Per agent per month ($25 to $89)
— (14-day trial only)
100 visitors
✓
✓
Customer support, ecommerce
Central
Web, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS, email, X, Discord, Telegram, LinkedIn
✓
✓
✓
✓ Included
✓
Flat monthly rate
✓ 10-day trial
✓ No documented cap
✓
✓
✓
Live today. Every platform, one inbox.
Paste your URL, connect your social platforms, and Central starts handling conversations. No separate chatbot to purchase. No per-agent seat to add. Most businesses are live the same day.
Don't take our word for it
"LiveChat worked for our website but our customers were messaging us on Instagram and WhatsApp and those all needed separate tools. I switched to Central and everything comes into one inbox now. Appointments book automatically. I don't need a separate chatbot product."
Daniel Thompson
Marketing Director, BrightWave Media
"LiveChat worked for our website but our customers were messaging us on Instagram and WhatsApp and those all needed separate tools. I switched to Central and everything comes into one inbox now. Appointments book automatically. I don't need a separate chatbot product."
Daniel Thompson
Marketing Director, BrightWave Media
"LiveChat worked for our website but our customers were messaging us on Instagram and WhatsApp and those all needed separate tools. I switched to Central and everything comes into one inbox now. Appointments book automatically. I don't need a separate chatbot product."
Daniel Thompson
Marketing Director, BrightWave Media